Picture special: Olympian YAC excel at Donegal Even Age Championships

Olympian YAC athletes were out in force at the recent even age group Donegal Cross Country Championships, hosted magnificently well by Inishowen AC in Carndonagh, and were not short of first class performances all round.

The girls worked fantastically well off each other, pushing themselves to their limits and walked away with the team Gold medal for their amazing efforts.

This augers well for the upcoming Ulster and N.Ireland Cross Country Championships for this plucky team of stars who beat off some stiff competition.

Boyd Russell was in exceptional form in the u12 Boys and showed the rest of the opposition a clean set of heels for the majority of the race but at the last corner with the gold medal a mere 100m away, he unfortunately slipped and fell at the last sharp corner which many struggled with throughout the day.

He managed extremely well to compose himself and race to the finish for 2nd place and a Silver medal.

Disappointing for the young lad but none-the-less it was a well deserved Championship medal and there will be many more races in the near future to vie for medals at.

Sean McGinley, the Irish Cross Country International from last year, showed true class in the u16 Boy’s race. Sean was competing a full year out of age against older opposition, to effortlessly maintain with the pace in the early stages and then streak ahead of the opposition to claim an extremely well deserved Gold medal and be crowned Donegal Cross Country Champion in what has been dubbed the race and performance of the day.

For many of the Olympians they were competing at their first ever cross country race with many again competing against opposition a full year older than themselves. Our full results are as follows:

Olympian YAC’s Tiernan Boyle contested the East Donegal half marathon, in Raphoe at the weekend and did magnificently well to finish a very impressive 9th overall and did it in brilliant new PB time smashing his previous 1hr31min time to run 1hr24min getting well under the salubrious 1 and half hour mark. Derek Campbell also ran extremely well to get under the 2 hour mark in his first ever race over the distance running 1hr51mins.

Well done to all to all our Olympian’s who competed with such heart over the weekend. Next up will be the uneven age groups Donegal Cross Country Championships on Sunday the 8th October at the Finn Valley centre. Olympian YAC will have another strong contingent contesting this as the preparations continue for the upcoming Ulster and N. Ireland Cross Country Championships.

TRAINING

Training will continue every Tuesday night at 7:00 – 8:15pm and Saturday mornings from 11am till 12.15pm at the Glenswilly pitch.

We are insured to cater for any and all abilities from 8 years of age right up to senior and master’s level who wishes to train, keep fit, have fun, and/or compete at a local to national/ international standard. New members as always are more than welcome. For further details, please do not hesitate to contact Martin O’ Donnell on 863838240 or message us via Facebook (Olympian AC) or feel free to come down and have a chat on any of our club nights.

Picture special: Olympian YAC excel at Donegal Even Age Championships was last modified: October 4th, 2017 by Chris McNulty

Sports writer from St Johnston, now based in Letterkenny, with ten years' experience covering sport in Donegal. Was a nominee for NUJ Sports Journalist of the Year in 2010. Honoured by the Donegal Boxing Board in 2016 for his coverage on the sport.